Walcot Methodist Church

Walcot Methodist church

Location of Walcot Methodist burial ground

Walcot Methodist Church, Nelson Place East, London Street was designed by the Rev William Jenkins. The foundation stone was laid on 31 Mar 1815 and it opened in May 1816. It was listed as a Grade II building in 1950. Behind it was its burial ground but this was cleared for development in the late 1980s and only a couple of memorials survive under bushes to the rear of the church. All excavated remains were re-buried at Haycombe Cemetery.

Number of burials by year

The number of burials per year increased over the first couple of decades after opening to 120-140. In 1837 there was peak of 199 due to the influenza epidemic. After the opening of the Walcot section of Locksbrook cemetery in 1864 the rate decreased to less than 30 per year. After 1907 there were only 4 burials.

The four volumes of the burial register span the period from 1815-1928

The burial registers give the locations of the burials as a row letter and plot number, for example ‘B.21 4th pt.’  In the survey carried out by R S Mimmack in 1986 on behalf of Bath City Council, the rows are given numbers and the plot numbers seem to be a sequence number for a surviving memorial in a particular row. Taking the burial of Joseph Cudworth (first governor of Kingswood School) on 23-Mar-1857 as an example, the burial register has ‘D7 1st part’ and the 1986 survey has Row 4 memorial 3 and describes the memorial as a ‘pyramid’ (presumably a slab pitched 4 ways). From the burial register entries and the 1986 survey it is possible to generate a plan that gives an indication of the original layout.